Two years ago Cork Penny Dinners served about 100 meals a week. Now it’s over 1,500.  

They are supplying meals now to people they never saw before, not “just” homeless people or those with drug or alcohol dependency but people with families, parents of small children, “the new poor”, people who just can’t make ends meet. They also supply a weekly shop to several households, literally to put food on the family table.

Cork Penny Dinners is on Little Hanover Street, within sight of the Courthouse.

I walk in and one or two of the people sitting at tables turn and smile. To the right is the kitchen, all clatter and steam as volunteers bustle about. This is not an extravagant space and that will become a recurring theme. Nothing is wasted here.

A man my own age welcomes me, his hand stretched out. “How’s it going?” he asks. “Will you have…